Public Art & New Media Silver Anniversary
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair announced details of the 2023 annual New York edition, following the notable success of last year’s return to an in-person fair event in Harlem. The 2023 iteration will take place at Malt House in the Manhattanville Factory District, 429 West 127th Street, from Thursday, May 18 through Sunday, May 21, […]
Cecilia Lamptey-Botchway is a Pan Africanist performance artist, sculptor, textile designer and a painter: Cecilia sees the African metaphysical universe as the inspiration for her paintings. Her art largely reflects her interrogation about Womanhood, Blackness and the Divinity of the African woman! As an active participant at the Ouidah Festivals in the Republic of […]
Foster Sakyiamah (b. 1983, Ghana) is an emerging contemporary artist based in Accra, Ghana. Instantly recognizable for their vibrant color palettes and preponderance of curved linear patterns, Sakyiamah’s paintings are celebrated as exuberant portrayals of the people and culture of Ghana. Sakyiamah’s affinity for patterns comes from his interest in the work of Malian […]
Read a recent article in the New Frame about the artist Chidinma Nnoli. The first paragraph described her work as poetry. And when you view her work, it’s very evident. There’s a quiet beauty to her paintings laced with layers of flowers and layered to provide texture. To see women so dark is very striking. […]
All of the women that Nemakhavhani portrays are bold and defiant—certainly not afraid to occupy a public space. From textile, art direction, illustration and photography, Rendani Nemakhavhani has been stunning us with her sensibility and style. Her illustrations and textiles are remarkable, orginal and punch you with flavor. For years, we have witnessed her portfolio […]
Although he produced a number of tapestries and paintings while at Rorke’s Drift, Muafangejo is known almost entirely as a printmaker; his linocuts are also particularly well known. In this respect, Azaria Mbatha (qv.), who favoured the medium, influenced Muafangejo as did many other artists who studied at Rorke’s Drift. In addition, the relative inexpensiveness […]
Johnson Ocheja, born 1994 in Kogi, Nigeria. He currently lives in Cross-River State, Nigeria. He graduated from Kogi State University with a bachelor’s degree in statistics. He is a self-taught artist inspired – as he says – “by my environment, the beautiful and colourful people around me and some of the historical stories I was […]
Featuring Annan Affotey, Aplerh-Doku Borlabi, Lord Ohene Okyerebour, Adjei Tawiah and Crystal Yayra Anthony, exhibition 18 (Rising Ghana) is a group presentation of five key emerging contemporary artists. Telling a story of self-expression and community driven support that extends out of Ghanaian domesticity and onto the world stage—the names in this exhibition were brought together in collaboration with […]
My feminism looks like freedom; it is opinionated and unapologetic — Lung Ntali LUNGA NTALI emphasises intersectionality, sexuality and femininity as important foundations regarding her storytelling and work. At her core, she is a truthful artist who encourages difficult but necessary conversations that speak to marginalized people. She manages to tackle subjects that attempt to […]
Ekene Emeka-Maduka, born 1996, was raised in Kano, Nigeria, before moving to Canada as a student. She now lives and works in Winnipeg. Ekene’s practice is an on going study of the “self”. It is an exploration of individuality and self-representation that translates her experiences to viewers who may or may not be familiar with […]
Meschac Gaba (born 1961) is a Beninese conceptual artist based in Rotterdam and Cotonou. His installations of everyday objects whimsically juxtapose African and Western cultural identities and commerce. He is best known for The Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997–2002, an autobiographical 12-room installation acquired and displayed by the Tate Modern in 2013. He has […]
Selly Raby Kane is a renowned Senegalese fashion designer and artist involved in Africa’s booming art and design movement. Kane is an interesting case study to grasp fashion’s involvement in Africa’s current debate surrounding identity and empowerment through innovation. This article discusses Kane’s designs in light of her contribution not only to contemporary approaches to […]
Annan Affotey was born in 1985 in Accra, Ghana. After graduating from Ghanatta College of Art and Design winning Best Student of Still Life, Best Imagination and Composition, and Best Abstract Drawing awards, Annan joined the Revolution Art Organization and displayed his work in several group and solo exhibitions in Accra. In 2013, Annan […]
“I enjoy spending quiet moments observing nature and my environment, exploring shapes, colours and designs.” Since graduating from the Art School of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria in 1997, Uchay Joel Chima’s artwork has continued to evolve, remaining relevant to developments in contemporary art. Weaving a tapestry of memory, imagination, societal happenings […]
Omar Ba is a contemporary Senegalese artist known for his mixed media paintings which fuse figurative and decorative motifs. Ba’s surreal scenes of violence and fantasy investigate despotic warlords of the present, traditional folklore, colonial oppression, and the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The artist has said that his work is meant to tell narratives that […]
Alida Rodrigues was born in 1983, in Cabinda, Angola, and lives and works in London. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art, at The Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, in 2007. In 2014 she had her first solo show at the Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, in Norway and a group show at […]
Gum’s presentation, “Ode to She,” is a timely reflection on her own experience as a Xhosa woman. Her work is rooted in the tradition known as intonjane, where a young girl evolves physically and spiritually through the many stages of her native culture. In her young 20s, Gum is certainly a young artist on the […]
ARTISTS Ifeoma Anyaeji, Delaine Le Bas, Alexandra Bircken, matali crasset, Tapfuma Gutsa, Sebastian Herkner, Michel Paysant, including collaborations with Eric Gauss and Justin Langlands. WEAVING COMMUNITIES Binga Craft Centre, Bulawayo Home Industries, Lupane Women’s Centre, Zienzele Foundation, STEP Trust CURATORS Raphael Chikukwa, Chief Curator, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Christine Eyene, Guild Research Fellow in Contemporary […]
Collins Obijiaku is a young, up-and-coming artist from Kaduna, Nigeria. His work is a celebration of blackness through elegantly constructed portraits. Gazing at his paintings is to be transported into a world where black people exist for themselves, innately elegant and unfazed by the world and its never-ending problems. There is an affective connection between […]
I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge – even wisdom. Like art. Toni Morrison LIVING BLACK ARTISTS Yamou Abderrahim, Virgil Ablon, Nina Chanel […]
WEST HARLEM ART FUND 